Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 October 2017 to Question 105348, on children: day care, what the reasons are for the apparent discrepancy between the proportion of providers cited who were willing and able to offer the extended hours places and the data provided on that proportion in paragraph 3 on page 12 of her Department's paper, Evaluation of Early Rollout of 30 Hours Free Childcare, published on 31 August 2017.

There are two different ways we categorised providers who were willing and able to offer 30 hours in the early rollout evaluation report.

For clarification:

• 83% of providers in the four early rollout areas delivering free entitlements (the universal 15 hours for 3 and 4 years old and/or the 15 hours for disadvantaged 2 year olds) were willing and able to deliver 30 hours.
• 62% of all registered providers in the four early rollout areas were willing and able to deliver 30 hours. However, it is important to highlight that while providers may be registered to deliver childcare this does not mean they are currently offering childcare or have sufficient number of children to fill the places.